University investigators, along with authorities and local communities in northern Chile are working to have a historical site in the Atacama Desert declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2020.

The sites are home to the world’s oldest known mummified bodies.

They are from the Chinchorro civilization which developed a mummification process some 5,000 years ago B.C. – that’s roughly 2,000 years before ancient Egyptians.

CGTN’s Joel Richards reports.